Privacy Policy

We understand how important it is to protect your personal information. Our policy below ratifies our commitment in respect of personal information we hold about you and what we do with that information. Personal information we collect will only be used for purposes we have collected it for or as allowed under the law. It is important to us that you are confident that any personal information we hold about you will be treated in a way which ensures protection of your personal information. We are committed to abide by the Australian Privacy Principles for the protection of personal information, as set out in the Privacy Act 1988, Spam Act 2003 and any other relevant law.

Personal information

When we refer to personal information we mean information from which your identity is reasonably apparent. This information may include information or an opinion about you whether it is true or not. The personal information we hold about you may also include credit information.

The kinds of personal information we may collect about you include your name, date of birth, address, phone numbers and email, account details, occupation, and any other information we may need to identify you.

Why we collect your personal information

We collect, hold, use and disclose our personal information for the purpose of efficiently and effectively carrying out our functions and activities including:

Acting as an agent for our clients such as banks, insurers, and utility providers to recover defaulted, cancelled and/or terminated credit facilities;

Providing accounts receivable management services for our clients;

Assisting you with financial solutions such as credit products and services;

Recruiting staff;

Monitoring, developing, improving and marketing our products and services; and

Other related functions and activities.

How we collect your personal information

Where reasonable and practical we will collect your personal information directly from you.

We may also collect your personal information indirectly from you through the access to and use of services and facilities available on our website including; our online customer portal, cookies and social media. We collect your personal information from your creditors or service providers when we; act on their behalf as their agent; are engaged by them to manage or recover a debt; or are assisting you with a financial solution such as assisting with a loan application.

We may collect information from credit reporting bodies or other information providers.

If you are a customer and we are having difficulty locating or contacting you, we may collect your personal information by making discreet enquiries with third parties. We may also discreetly verify your employment status and income with your employer.

If you are being considered for employment with us, we collect information from you during the recruitment process, from recruiting agencies, from your referees and by undertaking necessary background checks.

Using government related identifiers

If we collect government related identifiers, such as your tax file number, Medicare number, driver’s license number or pension number, we do not use or disclose this information other than required by law. We will never use a government related identifier as our own identifier for you, however we may request provision of one of these identifiers to assist in evidencing your identity when you deal with us.

How we hold safe and secure your personal information

We will take reasonable steps to protect your personal information by storing it in a secure environment. We may store personal information in paper and electronic form. We will also take reasonable steps to protect any personal information from misuse, loss and unauthorised access, modification or disclosure.

Do we disclose your personal information?

Unless you consent or we are otherwise permitted to do so by law, personal information will only be used for the purpose for which it was collected or for a related purpose, and in the case of sensitive information, only for a purpose directly related to the primary purpose. We may disclose your personal information in accordance with the Privacy Act, including to:

Where we are required to do so by law, such as under the Anti-Money or Laundering and Counter Terrorism Financing Act 2006 (Cth);

To investors, agents or advisers, or any entity that has interest in our business; or

To your employer, referees or identity verification services;

Other persons with your consent

We may also disclose certain related personal information to credit reporting bodies. For example, if you fail to meet your repayment obligations, we may be entitled to disclose that information to such a body. When such information is disclosed to a credit reporting body, that body may include such information in reports that are subsequently provided to credit providers to assist them in assessing your credit worthiness. We disclose information to the following credit reporting bodies:

Overseas disclosure

We may need to disclose certain information to overseas recipients from time to time to perform a range of technology, operational and customer service functions and activities for us. We take the necessary steps to protect personal information when it is disclosed overseas. We may disclose your personal information to our clients, contractors or service providers in overseas countries including (but is not limited to) New Zealand, The Philippines and India. If we have reason to believe that you are located overseas, we may disclose your personal information to our overseas agent in that country to assist us in performing our functions and activities.

Direct marketing

From time to time we may use your personal information to provide you with current information about offers you may find of interest, changes to our organisation, or new products or services being offered by us or any company with whom we are associated. We may contact you for direct marketing purposes including by mail, email, SMS, telephone, online advertising or facsimile.

If you do not wish to receive marketing information, you may at any time decline to receive such information by calling us on 1300 087 006 or by emailing us at manager@statemercantile.com.au. If the direct marketing is by email you may also use the unsubscribe function. We will not charge you for giving effect to your request and will take all reasonable steps to meet your request at the earliest possible opportunity.

Updating your personal information

It is important to us that the personal information we hold about you is accurate and up to date. During the course of our relationship with you we may ask you to inform us if any of your personal information has changed.

If you wish to make any changes to your personal information, you may contact us or alternatively log in to our customer portal to access and update the relevant information.

Accessing your personal information

We will provide you with access to the personal information we hold about you. You may request access to any of the personal information we hold about you at any time.

We may charge a fee for our costs of retrieving and supplying the information to you.

Depending on the type of request that you make we may respond to your request immediately, otherwise we usually respond to you within fourteen days of receiving your request. We may need to contact other entities to properly investigate your request.

There may be situations where we are not required to provide you with access to your personal information, of which an explanation will be provided, for example, if the information relates to existing or anticipated legal proceedings, or if your request is vexatious.

Correcting personal information

If any of the personal information we hold about you is incorrect, inaccurate or out of date you may request that we correct the information. If appropriate we will correct the personal information at the time of the request, otherwise, we will provide an initial response to you within seven days of receiving your request. Where reasonable, and after our investigation, we will provide you with details about whether we have corrected the personal information within 30 days.

We may need to consult with other entities as part of our investigation.

If we refuse to correct personal information we will provide you with our reasons for not correcting the information.

Complaints

If you are dissatisfied with how we have dealt with your personal information, about a breach of the Australian Privacy Principles, a registered AAP code that binds us, or about how we deal with complaints, please contact us. We will acknowledge your complaint within seven days. We will provide you with a decision on your complaint within 30 days. You may contact us by contacting: